So Very Dark

Night before last, Briggs had a really hard time falling asleep.

Whatever imp kept prodding him to wakefulness decided to mess with me last night. Strangely, I’m not *tired*…I feel well rested, but I rarely dropped below REM sleep and woke up countless times. And had lots of weird and vivid dreams.

Of course, they are already fading from my head as dreams do upon waking. All I really remember is there was one with someone riding Dressage and some whole story surrounding it, after which, me and some guy went over to the Borders where he was putting on a watercolor art show. Inside the Borders was a super cool coffee shop done like a super rustic wood cabin — smoke stained wood everything and an iron wood stove over in the corner. All the cool/hip people were hanging out there.

And the next dream had something to do with the Beach Boys song ‘Be True To Your School‘.

And in one earlier there was a rather arid place, an open road and an older model car.

Today I have Concept Development class, which always thrills and scares me. Right now I’m in the middle of an annoying and painful artist’s block, so I hope it doesn’t suck too much. And that I remember to bring my Ipod ’cause he plays some really frickin’ random music. ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down‘ was on one of the compilations we listened to the other day.

Obviously not such a good song as this one.

Excerpt from the journal post of Buuya, a girl I watch on DA.

“I was listening to the radio the other day, and the talk show host was discussing various changes made to classic fairytales to make them ‘appropriate for a contemporary young audience.’ One of the more drastic changes can be read about here which describes the changes made to the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ Apparently, having pig protagonist is offensive to muslims. Now, I’m not trying to be insensitive or anything, but even my Muslim friends seem to be laughing/sighing/groaning at this. Now, the pigs are ‘The Three Little Cowboy Builders’- something far more accessible? Yikes.

Apparently, nowadays, Humpty Dumpty scars children, so the laugh two lines have been cut out. Original episodes of Sesame Street recently released on DVD contain a warning that states “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child” (a simultaneously hilarious and terrifying article on that whole can of worms can be read here ). PC police lurk in the shadows, waiting to pounce on anyone who offers a non-nutritious opinion or comment. People live in fear, afraid to offend, lest they be whisked away ala V For Vendetta. ”

… So, I just wanted to share the crazy. I read this and rolled my eyes and cringed. And then after ranting in a comment on her journal, thought I’d share my ranting with you guys too.

These are the same people who stuff their houses with anti-bacterial wipes, sprays, lotions and soaps, and do their best to use them on every bit of matter and air that their child may potentially come in contact with at some point, thus HORRIBLY compromising the proper growth and development of said child’s immune system.

In my opinion, ripping the still-beating hearts out of classic folk and fairy-tales, making sure that children don’t encounter ANYTHING that could POSSIBLY upset them in ANY way does the same thing to the proper growth and development of their minds. Guess what? The world ISN’T soft and fluffy and brightly colored and full of happiness and butterflies! And if you never show your child anything but puppies and ice cream, when they go out into the REAL world, I expect that their chance of having a nervous breakdown is about 90%.

Alright, I don’t know enough about psychology to know if this is true, but seriously, people lived for hundreds of years with not ONLY fairy-tales where wolves ate innocent children and horses heads were nailed to gates, but also ACTUAL bad circumstances — hard work, little food, lack of modern medicine…and you know what? They did okay. They did not all become slobbering madmen unable to go through their daily lives because of the emotional and psychological traumas they suffered as children.

And I still think it’s probably better for you to get exposed to that stuff to a normal extent while growing up.

And above all, I think that the whole ‘PC/anti-child-scarring/we don’t darent offend anyone’ mindset is bloody ridiculous.

I mean, Jeabus Christ, people!